


Defeated

by Citron0



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Body Changes, DEAD FIC, Gen, Homeworld (Steven Universe), Shapeshifting, Spoilers for Episode: s05e23-24 Reunited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-13
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:40:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22242007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Citron0/pseuds/Citron0
Summary: Defeated by the Diamonds, Steven, dragged away from Earth must figure out his new place on Homeworld and on Earth, if he still has one.
Relationships: Blue Diamond & Steven Universe & White Diamond & Yellow Diamond, Blue Diamond/Yellow Diamond (Steven Universe)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 43





	Defeated

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this for a Discord Server, thought I'd post it here for convenience

They _lost,_ he couldn't fall asleep in time to calm the cluster, the planet was partially destroyed! He freaked out and used some Diamond power on them. They poofed all his friends and rushed back to Homeworld with him in tow.   
He gazed down at the damp stone with a grimace, Lapis didn't come back; he hoped she was okay wherever she was. He was still wearing his ruffled tux from Garnet's wedding, sand in his shoes and a loose bowtie that made his neck itchy. He wanted to go home, wear some comfy clothes relax with the Gems. Right then, he was all alone– at least he got to sleep on Blue's hair on the way there. It feels like he's only been on Homeworld for a couple of hours.  
He jolted when the door opened, Yellow's heavy footsteps clacked on the tile. He wasn't exactly afraid of her, but he still felt uncomfortable around her, all things considered.  
"Pink, since you've been so keen in wallowing in defeat since you got here, _Blue_ and I decided to get you a pearl from the Reef." Steven looked up from the desk the Pebbles had made for him. Tear treads drying on his cheeks.   
"She's Era 2, so she's not going to be as durable as a pearl fit for a diamond, keep that in mind."  
"I-," he suspected that if he denied the gift they'd shatter that poor pearl, "Duly noted."   
He slumped, "Can you please call me *Steven*?"  
Yellow rubbed her temples, _"Pink." Yes,_ they already had this conversation; _no,_ he wasn't going to let it go.  
"Please?! I already told you guys that I'm not my mom, what more do I have to say?" The chair he sat in splintered, "I'm so tired of **everyone** telling me I'm her! First it was _Rose_ _Quartz_ and **now** it's _Pink **Diamond!"**_ The stool shattered forcing him to fall on the ground.  
His anger dissipated as he coughed the dust out of his lungs, "What the?" He examined the debris in confusion, holding a handful of gravel in his palm, "Did-did **I** do that?!" Magenta eyes darted up to Yellow's for some kind of answer. Yellow Diamond didn't look surprised by the display. "How?" Why do Diamonds have _so many powers?_  
"Pink,"  
_"Steven,"_ he corrected automatically, dropping the granules back into the pile and dusting off his dress pants.  
"Even if you don't have your memories, you still have your powers-," she trailed off, "-perhaps Blue can train you on how to use them. She hasn't been much help since you disappeared, this could be good for her."

Yellow Pearl peaked her head through the door, she stood next to a smaller Pearl. She was about half her size, only a little taller than her waist. That was still taller than Steven, however, but just by a few inches. She had pale brown, fluffy hair with a smoky purple underside, it reminded him of Pearl's, slightly. Her eyes were a light cerise surrounding her mocha skin. She wore a begonia dress with poofy sleeves and light rose long sleeves. A transparent ribbon was tied around her waistline like the bow of a present, the same color lined the hem of the dress, whose skirt was wide and arced like a ball gown. A pink diamond sat in the middle of her chest, a much more vibrant color than those surrounding it. She had socks which matched the secondary color of her hair with cotton balls floating above them, they almost looked like marshmallows. She almost looked human, if not for those eyes and the champagne pearl which sat above the inflated section of her dress in the center of her nonexistent navel.  
He grimaced internally, assuming she was going to be his until he could figure out what to do. Was there anything to do?

"Pearl, give Pink her new pearl."  
"Right away, my Diamond." She turned to the younger pearl, speaking in a gentle voice, "Right this way."  
Champagne Pearl bowed to Steven, giving him a diamond salute, "It's a pleasure to be serving you, my Diamond."  
"Um, hi?" He offered his hand to shake, an awkward silence befell the two of them.   
"I'm Steven. What should I call you?"  
He pulled his arm back to his side cheeks flushing in embarrassment, he kept forgetting Gems don't do that, "'Pearl' is acceptable; however, I am a champagne pearl if you wish to refer to me as such. I understand that you've had previous Pearls." Her voice was soft and quiet like Blue Pearl's but it had a strange air of confidence and professionalism that _his-_ Pearl and Yellow Pearl shared.

"Uh," he tapped his chin, "Maybe I can call you Pane?"  
"Because she poofs easily like a Desert Glass?" Yellow smirked.  
"N-no! Uh," he faced the pearl, "How about Mocha, because you look like the drink and champagne is also a drink?" He felt like he was grasping at straws.  
"Mocha sounds lovely, my Diamond." She brushed her bangs out of her eyes revealing that they were the same purple-almost-pink underneath he had seen on other parts of hair.  
"You can call me Steven, it's fine."  
Yellow frowned, "She will not, she will address *her* diamond formally."  
Steven winced, "Can you use he/him pronouns for me, Yellow?"  
"He/him? Are you just making sounds up now?"  
"No! It-it's what I used on Earth-,"  
_**"Enough about the Earth!"**_ Steven flinched back.   
"I don't want to hear about that wretched rock unless you're going to tell me you wish to finish colonizing it." If he agreed to, would they not blow it up?  
"Can I colonize only part of it?" Maybe there were some unpopulated regions he could use? Was it possible to meet her halfway?   
"Why do you care about that planet so much?" That was a loaded question.  
The words spilled out before he could stop them.   
"My friends and family live there, and I'm half-organic so I need to eat—and that place has food!"  
"We should've shattered that _pseudo-court_ of yours before bringing you back." He felt a pressure remove itself from his chest, they're okay– er, sort of.   
Yellow cleared her throat to recapture his attention, saying his name with the roll of her eyes, "Your so-called friends only follow you because you're a Diamond, _Steven."_   
"That's not true! I went most of my life not knowing who my mom truly was."

He faltered, "I mean, Pearl knew but—I'm not even a Diamond! Not fully, my eyes don't even have the diamond pupils like yours and Blue's." Yellow raised an eyebrow at that statement. He didn't, right? Of course not, he saw himself earlier today before the wedding.  
His reassurances were doing nothing as a pit formed in his stomach, "Am I wrong?"   
His- _the_ pearl offered him a mirror from her gem; he saw the backside first, it wasn't being powered by a gem. Turning it over, he dropped it as soon as it registered to him that that was his face: those were his eyes. Rhomboids expanding in his shock, he had never been able to see his pupils before– had they always been like that? They weren't the same shade as his mother's, he took the smallest comfort in that. The crème-haired pearl caught the mirror before it could break too.  
"While it wasn't like that while we were fighting, after you used your aura, they changed."  
"D-did anything else change?" He asked in a panic. He looked at his hair, hands; and finally, he lifted his shirt to look at his gem. It was rotated slightly outward- was it trying to get back to its factory position? That awoken an unspoken fear in his heart, he clutched at his dusty black vest.  
"Am I going to turn pink? What's happening to me?" He was almost hyperventilating, fiddling with a loose string on a button. His pearl squeezed his hand, hers was pleasantly warm, like an electric blanket.  
"M-maybe I can rotate it back? I've never been too good at shapeshifting, but it wouldn't hurt to try, right?" He kept looking to her for guidance, why? Because she was a Diamond, no, that's not it. Because she was his family too; he always sought approval from his family. She was so tall he was like beetle in contrast; he felt so small. Mixed feelings sure were mixed.  
Yellow's hardened gaze softened, "Go ahead and try." He hated how happy that made him; the Diamonds separated him from his family but were also his family? They did so many terrible things, he sat down, and he was one of them. The memory of his new eyes burned in his mind.  
He closed his eyes and focused on the pulse that emanated from his gem like a second heartbeat.   
There, there!  
He had to push it back into place. He opened his eyes, but he wasn't in the palace anymore. Where was he? He could see his body resting with his legs crossed, the pearls and Yellow. He tried to lift his own shirt up, but that sent him inward. The place was pink and reminded him of the fusion spaces he had seen with Malachite, Garnet and St-Stevonnie. He saw himself standing upright like a model render, arms outstretched T-posing. He lifted this Steven's shirt and touched the gem, he felt the touch on himself and yelped.   
"Okay, you can do this, Steven, just concentrate." What was his gem supposed to look like? Rose's? Did he really want it to look like hers, that was just a big lie. An _act!_   
Eyes wet, he mumbled, "I don't want it to look like Mom's, but isn't that what I'm here to do? So it doesn't look like Pink's?" If he can change it at anytime, maybe there wasn't a rush? Right now, if his gem was positioned like Pink Diamond's it would take up most of his chest; that's why he came in to fix it, right? Not just because he was terrified of looking like her? _He wasn't her._  
"You're not." The model said in a ghostly tone matching his voice to a T. He jumped at the sound, it continued to echo through the chamber. He pushed his gem down, the pentagon cut was upside down, but that was okay, he didn't really want to look like _Rose Quartz_ anyway. 

He woke up to Yellow Pearl and Mocha.  
"Oh good, you're awake, my Diamond," Yellow Pearl began, "My Diamond, _Yellow_ Diamond-," saying his aunt(?)'s name with pride, "-had business to attend to, but show me your progress on fixing your gem. I'll record it in her stead."  
He rolled up his sweaty dress shirt, it felt tight around his shoulder.  
"I see, you chose that orientation, why is it upside-down-," She noted that the pentagon was perfect, 'as a Diamond should be.'   
"-Or at least rotated slightly?" His feet cramped in his shoes.  
"I don't know." He rubbed his arms, stiff from being held taut by this long sleeves.  
Mocha leaned in to see, "Do you think it will try to right itself again?"  
"Uh, maybe?" He unbuttoned parts of his vest and the top three buttons yet.  
"Well," Yellow Pearl typed on her screen, "I'll be sure to include that possibility on the report. I must return to my Diamond now."  
"Okay, bye." He waved.  
"My Diamond, you must dismiss me properly."  
"Oh, um," he searched his mind for what he was supposed to do, the only time he had ever seen a Gem dismissed was at the Zoo. Right, Holly!  
"'That will be all?'" His voice cracked on the delivery. She stared at his hands to guide him into the next step. He clapped twice, were his nails always _so_ pink? Probably not, the nail bed was still normal but his nails were all a desaturated hot pink. A muted angry part of him wanted to tear them off. Distracted by the new development, Yellow Pearl's bow brought his eyes back to her.  
"A pleasure doing business with you, my Diamond." Promptly leaving through the humongous door. He stood up noticing that he was a head taller than Mocha. His proportions were the same, how was this happening? He barely even had a neck.  
"Mocha? Did I grow while I was rotating my Gem?" He wasn't too tall, he was still shorter than Pearl. It was just _so_ jarring.  
"I think you grew so you could adjust it without mangling your organs." She must've been informed of him beforehand or he hoped so.  
"Oh, but I barely changed anything!" His nails were so shiny like they were painted. Catching the light almost as well as the mirror.  
He sighed, staring at the ceiling, then spared a glance at his desk.  
"I need a new chair for my desk." The Pebbles built a new one almost immediately.  
"Mocha?"  
"Yes, my Diamond?"  
"Is there anyway to get food sent here from Earth or-," he shivered, "the Zoo?"  
"The Zoo is your property, you could request some."  
"Um, okay! Let's do it, contact Holly Blue and tell her to ship some to us." It would be nice to see some of the Famethysts again.  
She opened a peach touchpad from her gem, "It would be best if you contacted her directly, no one besides the Diamonds and their pearls knows about your arrival on Homeworld."  
"Oh, alright, let's get this over with."

"Who is this?" The sharp tone of the Agate filled the silence of his *new* room.  
"Hi, Holly," he waved weakly.  
She balked at the sight of his eyes, **"You?** _You're_ _**Pink** Diamond?"_ Her arms formed a diamond as fast as she could.  
"Sort of, I'm her son."  
"Son, as in human offspring?" Thank goodness _someone_ knows what a son is.  
"Yeah, I'm half-human; I need some food from the Zoo or I'll starve here. It's actually kind of nice to see you, all my friends got poofed and I-," he wiped a tear, "It's nice to see a familiar face." Any would probably do, he wasn't going to tell her that though.  
"Sh-should I send some Amethysts there? They aren't too useful here, maybe seeing them will help you ease into this role, they're yours after all."  
"That would be great, thanks, Holly!"  
"No, thank you for contacting me and not ordering my shattering." She was waiting for him to do something, say something.  
"Oh! That will be all." She nodded and hung up with a final salute.

He spent the next several minutes struggling with Mocha to take off his top and shoes.  
His socks had holes in them, shirt and pants torn. He ended up having to take off all of his clothes to give to the Pebbles for them to make him something from the tattered clothing. He was glad Gems didn't have concept of nudity (they were technically always nude?), but he didn't like feeling so exposed. The Pebbles made him a pink, white and black striped sundress to wear in the meantime, there was a diamond-shaped hole cut over his gem– he didn't want to see it right then. His vest had the sleeves torn off and expanded to fit his arms, he couldn't button it up all the way. The sand itched betwixt his toes. Mocha must've seen his discomfort as she flicked her wrist sending the sand out.  
"You have powers?"  
She held an index finger over her lips, "I was left incubating into Era 2." Giving him a knowing smile, he averted his gaze his shoes; hallowed out to use the softer bits in Steven's new slippers. Pink and almost entirely made from the gargantuan curtains overseeing the balcony. White puffs hovered above them like the ones on Mocha's stockings.  
He sat in his new chair staring at his reflection as Mocha sang wordless melodies to fill to the silence screaming in his mind. He wondered if he could ever get used to his new life. He stared longingly past the ceiling almost missing the bubbles glistening like, well, pink diamonds in the night.


End file.
